One objective of patterning applications is to form a desired light pattern on a work piece. The work piece is thus exposed to patterned light. Patterned light can be used in many diverse applications. Light patterning is used for the cutting and drilling of materials as well as lithographic applications such as mask generation, wafer exposure and panel exposure to mention just a few.
In most patterning applications, a light beam is directed through a mask toward a work piece. Typically, the mask contains areas that are transparent and other areas that are opague to the light beam. Thus, portions of a light beam impinging on the mask pass through the transparent areas of the mask onto a work piece. The transparent areas can be arranged on the mask so as to form a desired pattern. Light light passing through the transparent areas on the mask impinges on a work piece to expose areas thereon to the light in a pattern corresponding to the transparent areas of the mask.
A disadvantage of this method is that most of the light energy is absorbed or reflected by the mask and thus wasted. An additional disadvantage is the low productivity. Only one work piece per light source can be processed at a time.
It is therefore an object of this invention to increase light beam utilization in patterning applications by a significant amount beyond that of the prior art.
It is a further object of this invention to increase the number of work pieces concurrently exposed to patterned light from a single light source.
It is another object of this invention to provide for the low cost utilization of the light beam to expose multiple work pieces to patterned light.